Helsinki, Finland – Jesse Joensuu scored his second goal with nine seconds remaining in the third period to lift Finland to a 3-2 victory over the United States in the quarterfinals of the 2012 World Championship.
Joensuu delighted the home crowd when he converted a Petri Kontiola behind- the-net feed, setting up a semifinal matchup against Russia on Saturday.
After Joensuu and Kyle Palmieri traded goals 21 seconds apart in the second period, the Americans grabbed a 2-1 lead 1:39 into the third on a tally by Bobby Ryan. But captain Mikko Koivu tied it with 6:58 left when a Valtteri Filppula shot caromed in off his skate.
Petri Vehanen made 24 saves for Finland, while Jimmy Howard stopped 28 shots in defeat.
Team USA had beaten the defending champions, 5-0, in the preliminary round.
In Stockholm, the undefeated Russians used a three-goal third period to subdue the upstart Norwegians, 5-2.
Alexei Yemelin broke a 2-2 tie 55 seconds into the third, taking a feed from Pavel Datsyuk and beating Norway's Lars Haugen over the glove hand. Nikolai Zherdev tipped in a Yevgeni Biryukov point shot to make it 4-2 at 10:43 and captain Ilya Nikulin added a power-play goal with 5:08 to play.
Russian Alex Ovechkin made his tournament debut and opened the scoring 7:26 into the contest. Ovechkin arrived in Sweden after the NHL's Washington Capitals were eliminated by the New York Rangers in the second round of the playoffs.
The Norwegians pulled even on a goal by Per-Age Skroder, but Russia went back in front later in the first period when Alexander Popov fired a shot past Haugen's blocker.
Patrick Thoresen, the leading scorer in the preliminary round with six goals and 16 points, tied it 28 seconds into the middle stanza on a Norway power play.
Semyon Varlamov made 19 saves for the Russians.
Haugen recorded 40 saves in defeat.
Earlier in Helsinki, Michal Handzus scored a power-play goal late in the third period to lift Slovakia to a 4-3 victory over Canada.
Ryan Getzlaf took a major kneeing penalty with 2:32 remaining in regulation to leave Canada a man short and it took the Slovaks just four seconds to snap a 3-3 tie.
Slovakia won the offensive-zone draw and Andrej Sekera ripped a shot from the left point. Handzus, directly in front of Canadian goaltender Cam Ward, made a neat deflection over the netminder's right shoulder for the winner.
The Slovaks also received goals from Tomas Kopecky, Miroslav Satan and Milan Bartovic, while Jan Laco stopped 33 shots in the victory.
Canada was eliminated in the quarterfinals for the third straight year. Evander Kane, Jeff Skinner and Alexandre Burrows scored for the Canadians, who held a 3-2 lead in the third period. Ward finished with 24 saves.
After Kopecky and Satan gave Slovakia a 2-0 lead with goals in the first 9:14 of the contest, Kane scored late in the first and Skinner added a power-play goal 6 1/2 minutes into the second to tie the game. Burrows put Canada ahead with 2:17 left in the middle stanza, but the Slovaks tied it with just 6:35 to play in the third when Bartovic beat Ward with a wrister from the right circle.
In the semifinals, Slovakia will face the Czech Republic, which defeated host nation Sweden by a 4-3 score. Milan Michalek potted the game-winner with 29 seconds to go in the third period.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.